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Why I should... * Remove a background "online"? * Write a resume "online"? * Create an E-mail signature "online"?[1] * Create a profile picture "on

Why I should... * Remove a background "online"? * Write a resume "online"? * Create an E-mail signature "online"?[1] * Create a profile picture "online"? * ... Operating systems are happily executing programs on your computer, quick, autonomous and reliable. The first in the list which makes sense is Jitsi. Here some personal recommendations: * Use GIMP or KRITA * Use LibreOffice or Latex with moderncv[2] (We're on hackernews, right?) * Use your E-Mail application and plaintext! * Again GIMP or use included tools of the application or network (Signal and other provide it) * For polls you can use often included features of messengers (e.g. reactions in Signal) or non-commercial sites [3] [1] Please use plaintext [2] https://github.com/moderncv/moderncv https://github.com/moderncv/moderncv [3] https://terminplaner4.dfn.de https://terminplaner4.dfn.de

asicsp 4y ago
Resume is understandable, if there are themes to choose from (kinda like Overleaf).
teknolog 4y ago
Heck, a pencil worked great back when I was a kid! As someone who has to deal with IT security, I will never install anything local if I can avoid it.
- ho_schi 4y ago
  Therefore upload the resume online on a random site? Which is the most sensible data and a security breach. There tough requirements on companies regarding handling your resumes for reasons.
  - jehb 4y ago
    I understand the concern, but looking at LinkedIn suggests this is not a threat model the vast majority of users are bothered by.
  - gonzo41 4y ago
    Your ignoring that most people have linked in accounts. A resume isn't exactly secret information.
WA 4y ago
Why install software, if I can do this quickly in a browser, especially if I need to do this only once?
- Retr0id 4y ago
  Not to mention the fact that the browser is very well sandboxed and security hardened.
  - ryanianian 4y ago
    > browser is very well sandboxed and security hardened. But the back-end of a browser-only tool may not be. And it may not be online the next time you go to use it. Or it may lose or sell your data.
    - Retr0id 4y ago
      Sure, there's a confidentiality issue with whatever data you upload, but there's low risk of the rest of the data on your system being compromised.
  - egberts1 4y ago
    Very … well … sandboxed … browsers? Ummm, there’s Spectre in JavaScript.
    - Retr0id 4y ago
      And everywhere else? Although it does present a risk to sandboxed environments, Spectre is not a sandboxing issue, it's a CPU bug.
      - egberts1 4y ago
        Semantic, shemantic; Risk remains the same.
        4y ago
Retr0id 4y ago
RemoveBG is very good at what it does, and it certainly would be nice if there was an offline version. However, there isn't, and I don't think you'll find an offline tool that comes close in terms of quality of result. There are cases were privacy of data isn't a real concern - e.g. you're about to publish the resulting file anyway. If you need to keep your data private, then sure, don't pipe it through an online tool. But that doesn't mean the usescases aren't there.
- bertman 4y ago
  >However, there isn't, and I don't think you'll find an offline tool that comes close in terms of quality of result. There is: https://github.com/danielgatis/rembg https://github.com/danielgatis/rembg
  - Retr0id 4y ago
    This is great, but again does not come close in terms of quality of result. Take the lion example from the readme: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/danielgatis/rembg/master/examples/animal-3.out.png https://raw.githubusercontent.com/danielgatis/rembg/master/e... The alpha blending of the fur around the edges is way off. Compare to RemoveBG results: https://i.imgur.com/Jt2ICsD.png https://i.imgur.com/Jt2ICsD.png Unfortunately it won't let me export in full-res without creating an acount, but the fur is handled properly.
ranger_danger 4y ago
Why? Because 99% of the world's population prefers it.
TekMol 4y ago
Because of the sandboxing browsers provide. The barrier to install native software should be very, very high. It is like having unprotected sex with someone. There needs to be a high level of trust and a long term commitment. Using a website on the other hand is like exchanging a few nice words. You can do that with a stranger, without much risk. It is also easier to handle. A website can be bookmarked and usually loads in a second or so. Websites are also easy to customize. Usually you can bookmark individual pages directly. Often with the parameters you regularly need. You can zoom in and out of the interface. You can customize the HTML and CSS and even the functionality via bookmarklets. And you can link to websites and everybody - independent of their OS - can instantly use it.
- bertman 4y ago
  >Using a website on the other hand is like exchanging a few nice words This is absolutely not true if you're supposed to upload (possibly private) images to some random server for e.g. background removal.
  - TekMol 4y ago
    Sure, the words you exchange are now known to the other party. But a native app can upload anything it wants anywhere. Not just the images you processed but anything it can access on your computer.
    - eitland 4y ago
      Good points on both sides. But I am absolutely still in the camp that trusts Gimp way more than uploading photos to a random website.
      - nonrandomstring 4y ago
        > Good points on both sides. All the points are true, so we need to dig a little deeper and be more specific about what is at issue here. Online and Native are quite different trust and utility models. Web applications protect the execution environment owned and managed by the user. They do so at the cost of compromising some of the user's data, which must usually be processed remotely. The protection applies to most of the user's data. This trust tradeoff is iterated/ongoing, so that benefits and harms accrue over time. Native applications make a one-off trust transaction. "Is it safe to install on my device?". In the win situation the benefit is speedy and safe processing of all the user's data for all future time. If the user is tricked, then the loss is catastrophic, exposing potentially all of the user's data, perhaps silently/undetectably for considerable future time. That's a very simplified and perhaps naive distinction. Despite the pressures of surveillance capitalism, some web services are honest, TLS and GDPR work, and some users are sensible about what they share online. On the flip side we are seeing that devices come pwned from the factory, at the hardware or firmware level, which makes a nonsense of the whole "endpoint security" paradigm.
jccalhoun 4y ago
A lot of people would rather use a single use web site than install a program and learn how to use it. There may be valid reasons to download and install a program but I can't even convince anyone to install a password manager so if my friends ask me how to remove a background on a pick I'm more likely to point them to a website than a program.
Cthulhu_ 4y ago
You're already making the assumption that people use desktop or laptop systems and can actually install software; what if they don't have administrator access? What if they're using a chromebook? What if they're on mobile? What if they don't know Latex? And LibreOffice is kinda... ugly and slow in my opinion. They're low-barrier alternatives to the options you provide, and that's absolutely fine.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
solardev 4y ago
In short, because dedicated developers making one-off projects that do one thing well (a la the Unix philosophy) can serve it over the internet easier than making standalone cross-platform apps. RemoveBG, for example, does a FAR better job (in less than a second) than manual lassoing, feathering, etc. Eventually Photoshop added a similar feature, but not until RemoveBG and its ilk were on the web for a few years. I'm not sure if GIMP has similar auto-bg removal, or if it works as well... but even if it did, it's still more of a learning curve than "upload picture and push remove". Even after two decades of Photoshop usage, it's still faster for me to use RemoveBG to create, say, a new Slack emoji... often I can finish before Photoshop even finishes loading. For resumes, I use Kickresume all the time because they make the process FAR easier than creating a similar thing from scratch in Illustrator, InDesign, or Word. Unlike a dumb template, the resume websites understand the "semantics" of a resume (as in, this section is your employment history, this is your skills, this is your references) and can theme them intelligently, such as displaying skills as numbers, stars, progress bars, or words ("Advanced", "Beginner"), or easily reformatting the dates for you. Then it saves all your resumes, one per employer, in its own easy to use cloud storage. When submitting a bunch of applications (because I'm not fancy enough to have a huge personal network), it takes the time-per-resume from hours down to minutes. It's a huge timesaver. Email signature: Agreed, HTML sigs are overkill. Profile picture: Again, like RemoveBG, it's so much easier to use this than having to learn a vector graphics program, manipulating/centering circles, adding strokes and fills, figuring how to properly place text inside a shape (THIS circle, not that one, and flowing this way, not that!), etc. There's nothing wrong with desktop apps for complex use cases (Office is still way better on the desktop than on the web, for example) but for one-offs, having an easy web app to go to and get the job done in a few seconds is waaaaaaay easier. Not all of us on HN are ideological purists. No way I'm going to bother with LibreOffice and the JVM and Latex just to make a resume when a website can have it done in 5-10 min in a WYSIWYG and zero learning curve.
- zzo38computer 4y ago
  What if you want a "one thing" simple program to be used by command-line (with pipes), though? What if you want to work without internet connections, too? Interaction with other programs (specified by user)? Use local display options for GUI? etc? HTML is not very good for that, I think. (While you can make local HTML files that work without internet connection, it isn't very well for some kinds of uses. And, this does not solve any of the other issues that I had mentioned, too.)
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

asicsp 4y ago

Resume is understandable, if there are themes to choose from (kinda like Overleaf).

teknolog 4y ago

Heck, a pencil worked great back when I was a kid! As someone who has to deal with IT security, I will never install anything local if I can avoid it.

ho_schi 4y ago
Therefore upload the resume online on a random site? Which is the most sensible data and a security breach. There tough requirements on companies regarding handling your resumes for reasons.
- jehb 4y ago
  I understand the concern, but looking at LinkedIn suggests this is not a threat model the vast majority of users are bothered by.
- gonzo41 4y ago
  Your ignoring that most people have linked in accounts. A resume isn't exactly secret information.

WA 4y ago

Why install software, if I can do this quickly in a browser, especially if I need to do this only once?

Retr0id 4y ago
Not to mention the fact that the browser is very well sandboxed and security hardened.
- ryanianian 4y ago
  > browser is very well sandboxed and security hardened. But the back-end of a browser-only tool may not be. And it may not be online the next time you go to use it. Or it may lose or sell your data.
  - Retr0id 4y ago
    Sure, there's a confidentiality issue with whatever data you upload, but there's low risk of the rest of the data on your system being compromised.
- egberts1 4y ago
  Very … well … sandboxed … browsers? Ummm, there’s Spectre in JavaScript.
  - Retr0id 4y ago
    And everywhere else? Although it does present a risk to sandboxed environments, Spectre is not a sandboxing issue, it's a CPU bug.
    - egberts1 4y ago
      Semantic, shemantic; Risk remains the same.
      - 4y ago

Retr0id 4y ago

RemoveBG is very good at what it does, and it certainly would be nice if there was an offline version. However, there isn't, and I don't think you'll find an offline tool that comes close in terms of quality of result. There are cases were privacy of data isn't a real concern - e.g. you're about to publish the resulting file anyway. If you need to keep your data private, then sure, don't pipe it through an online tool. But that doesn't mean the usescases aren't there.

bertman 4y ago
>However, there isn't, and I don't think you'll find an offline tool that comes close in terms of quality of result. There is: https://github.com/danielgatis/rembg https://github.com/danielgatis/rembg
- Retr0id 4y ago
  This is great, but again does not come close in terms of quality of result. Take the lion example from the readme: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/danielgatis/rembg/master/examples/animal-3.out.png https://raw.githubusercontent.com/danielgatis/rembg/master/e... The alpha blending of the fur around the edges is way off. Compare to RemoveBG results: https://i.imgur.com/Jt2ICsD.png https://i.imgur.com/Jt2ICsD.png Unfortunately it won't let me export in full-res without creating an acount, but the fur is handled properly.

ranger_danger 4y ago

Why? Because 99% of the world's population prefers it.

TekMol 4y ago

Because of the sandboxing browsers provide. The barrier to install native software should be very, very high. It is like having unprotected sex with someone. There needs to be a high level of trust and a long term commitment. Using a website on the other hand is like exchanging a few nice words. You can do that with a stranger, without much risk. It is also easier to handle. A website can be bookmarked and usually loads in a second or so. Websites are also easy to customize. Usually you can bookmark individual pages directly. Often with the parameters you regularly need. You can zoom in and out of the interface. You can customize the HTML and CSS and even the functionality via bookmarklets. And you can link to websites and everybody - independent of their OS - can instantly use it.

bertman 4y ago
>Using a website on the other hand is like exchanging a few nice words This is absolutely not true if you're supposed to upload (possibly private) images to some random server for e.g. background removal.
- TekMol 4y ago
  Sure, the words you exchange are now known to the other party. But a native app can upload anything it wants anywhere. Not just the images you processed but anything it can access on your computer.
  - eitland 4y ago
    Good points on both sides. But I am absolutely still in the camp that trusts Gimp way more than uploading photos to a random website.
    - nonrandomstring 4y ago
      > Good points on both sides. All the points are true, so we need to dig a little deeper and be more specific about what is at issue here. Online and Native are quite different trust and utility models. Web applications protect the execution environment owned and managed by the user. They do so at the cost of compromising some of the user's data, which must usually be processed remotely. The protection applies to most of the user's data. This trust tradeoff is iterated/ongoing, so that benefits and harms accrue over time. Native applications make a one-off trust transaction. "Is it safe to install on my device?". In the win situation the benefit is speedy and safe processing of all the user's data for all future time. If the user is tricked, then the loss is catastrophic, exposing potentially all of the user's data, perhaps silently/undetectably for considerable future time. That's a very simplified and perhaps naive distinction. Despite the pressures of surveillance capitalism, some web services are honest, TLS and GDPR work, and some users are sensible about what they share online. On the flip side we are seeing that devices come pwned from the factory, at the hardware or firmware level, which makes a nonsense of the whole "endpoint security" paradigm.

jccalhoun 4y ago

A lot of people would rather use a single use web site than install a program and learn how to use it. There may be valid reasons to download and install a program but I can't even convince anyone to install a password manager so if my friends ask me how to remove a background on a pick I'm more likely to point them to a website than a program.

Cthulhu_ 4y ago

You're already making the assumption that people use desktop or laptop systems and can actually install software; what if they don't have administrator access? What if they're using a chromebook? What if they're on mobile? What if they don't know Latex? And LibreOffice is kinda... ugly and slow in my opinion. They're low-barrier alternatives to the options you provide, and that's absolutely fine.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

solardev 4y ago

In short, because dedicated developers making one-off projects that do one thing well (a la the Unix philosophy) can serve it over the internet easier than making standalone cross-platform apps. RemoveBG, for example, does a FAR better job (in less than a second) than manual lassoing, feathering, etc. Eventually Photoshop added a similar feature, but not until RemoveBG and its ilk were on the web for a few years. I'm not sure if GIMP has similar auto-bg removal, or if it works as well... but even if it did, it's still more of a learning curve than "upload picture and push remove". Even after two decades of Photoshop usage, it's still faster for me to use RemoveBG to create, say, a new Slack emoji... often I can finish before Photoshop even finishes loading. For resumes, I use Kickresume all the time because they make the process FAR easier than creating a similar thing from scratch in Illustrator, InDesign, or Word. Unlike a dumb template, the resume websites understand the "semantics" of a resume (as in, this section is your employment history, this is your skills, this is your references) and can theme them intelligently, such as displaying skills as numbers, stars, progress bars, or words ("Advanced", "Beginner"), or easily reformatting the dates for you. Then it saves all your resumes, one per employer, in its own easy to use cloud storage. When submitting a bunch of applications (because I'm not fancy enough to have a huge personal network), it takes the time-per-resume from hours down to minutes. It's a huge timesaver. Email signature: Agreed, HTML sigs are overkill. Profile picture: Again, like RemoveBG, it's so much easier to use this than having to learn a vector graphics program, manipulating/centering circles, adding strokes and fills, figuring how to properly place text inside a shape (THIS circle, not that one, and flowing this way, not that!), etc. There's nothing wrong with desktop apps for complex use cases (Office is still way better on the desktop than on the web, for example) but for one-offs, having an easy web app to go to and get the job done in a few seconds is waaaaaaay easier. Not all of us on HN are ideological purists. No way I'm going to bother with LibreOffice and the JVM and Latex just to make a resume when a website can have it done in 5-10 min in a WYSIWYG and zero learning curve.

zzo38computer 4y ago
What if you want a "one thing" simple program to be used by command-line (with pipes), though? What if you want to work without internet connections, too? Interaction with other programs (specified by user)? Use local display options for GUI? etc? HTML is not very good for that, I think. (While you can make local HTML files that work without internet connection, it isn't very well for some kinds of uses. And, this does not solve any of the other issues that I had mentioned, too.)

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]